Dr. Diane B. Kunz, Esq.
Responding to “After
Haiti Quake, the Chaos of U.S. Adoptions, ” by Ginger Thompson, the New York
Times, August 4, 2010.
This article unfairly maligns the dedicated government
officials who worked tirelessly, hand in hand with the Haitian government, to
serve the needs of all Haiti citizens in the aftermath of the January 12
earthquake.
Consider the context. Unicef, along with many NGO’s, has
been operating in Haiti for years, funding, and therefore tacitly approving a
system, that allowed an estimated 380,000 children to languish in orphanages.
Many of these children had biological parents, but parents who were unable or
unwilling to care for them. Another 200,000 were used as restaveks (child
slaves), often by family members, and in plain sight of those who are supposed
to be protecting them.
The earthquake threw this already fragile system into
complete disarray. Unicef led the charge
to keep children in the country. When all you have are tents, a tent city seems
like the right response. Others attempted to count children; when you don’t
have a family, or food or water, an id bracelet can seem like the right
response. Never mind that there was no way to verify the information used to
register the children. Organizations experienced in providing group homes
weighed in-arguing for their “family-based” care options. Never mind that there
is nothing family about it-it is small scale institutional care. Meanwhile,
citizens from many countries, including the U.S. begged to help. Potential
adoptive parents asked for an accelerated process, many others proposed large
scale “Peter Pan” airlifts to bring children to safety.
It is the largely thankless task of Department of State and
Homeland Security officials to weigh all of these proposals, and decide how to
act. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed Michele Bond, Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State, to the position of interagency coordinator for
this unprecedented effort. She and her
colleagues knew that despite ideological pressures for all children to remain
in country and “enjoy their cultural heritage”, congregate care exposes
children to risk of exploitation, and is never a safe or appropriate placement.
In Haiti, we can be proud that our officials acted swiftly
and with the best interests of children at heart. With imperfect information,
and respect for a partner government that suffered enormous personnel and
structural damage, the U.S. government offered a haven to children who had
suffered a devastating loss. The Haitian children brought to the United States
through this program will have the opportunity to embrace their Haitian past as
well or better than if they were left in a tent city. With the benefit of
health care and an education previously unknown to him or her, these children
will be free to explore their future from the arms of parents who have made a lifelong commitment,
secure in the knowledge that their lives were valuable to the country which
granted them refuge.
Diane B. Kunz is an American author, historia and lawyer, and executive director of the Center for Adoption Policy. She is the author of Butter and Guns, an overview of America's Cold War economic policy.
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